"I'm telling you, Clones don't have the force. When you get a written letter from George Lucas that says Clones have the force, then I'll believe it."

This quote was particularly hilarious because it was the father telling his young son... and from the frustration in his tone it was clear this was not the first time he'd had to correct this terrible mistake.

I wrote it down at the time because, really, I thought there were so many different directions I could go with it.... pop culture, parent/child relationships, the toy isle at Target. Now, though, after watching twenty kids each have a different take on making a pasta skeleton during their HAlloween party, I am struck by how the quote might relate to imagination.

Albert Einstein amously said... "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I think this must be difficult for children to understand since often we live in a world that reward facts more than curiousity. My dughter struggles with this constantly. The desire to be correct frequently keeps her from experimenting with being wrong. And yet... she has one of the most amazing imaginations of any child her age I know. It is, in fact, her strongest asset.

What better day, though, than today to reflect on imagination. Halloween, as a holiday, is the one day a year where we encourage our children to push their imagination to the limits. For one day they do onot have to be 'real' or accept the visible/factual world around them. They can imagine witches flying on brooms over their head, or ghosts floating through the branches of a tree. They can become a princess, or a ninja, or a superhero....

Or.... on this one day at least... they can become a clone who indeed has the force; because on HAlloween, anything we imagine is possible.

"My son was playing with my phone the other day, and when I got it back from him I saw a bunch of books that he had downloaded (actually just samples), but anyhow... he looked atm e and said 'mom, they're all the kind you like.' And then I noticed they all had steamy romance covers on them."

OMG - I was cracking up when I overheard these two women talking about this. So much for keeping a low profile. They totally caught me listening and I had to apologize but told them I was an author so their conversation had totally snagged my attention. The one woman telling the story let me look at her screen.... and, sadly, none of the books were Betting Jessica. It was quickly obvious since, indeed, there was alot of skin showing on the book cover models.

Part of me wishes I could write steamy stuff.... but so far if that's what someone wants to read, they are not going to find it in my books. Ironically, though, my writing about sex has become more graphic at the very same time as my writing has taken on a more inspirational bent. Not sure how to resolve those two things except that the older I get the more I see that love conncetions have to happen at both a physical as well as emotional level in order to really make sense and resonate as true.

That said, I find the idea of creating an erotic romance novel cover intriguing. One author I met told me she had to keep sending the cover art back because the pants on the male model were so low you could actually see pubic hair. Seriously! Can you imagine the conversations between the author and editor?

On the other hand.... since I designed the cover for Betting Jessica myself I am glad I didn't have to make it erotic; not the least of which is because I am not sure where I would have found models willing to bare all.